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Netanyahu vs. Herzl (and Jabotinsky)
By Israel Harel

The Jewish National Fund was founded at the Fifth Zionist Congress in 1901. Herzl, the father of Zionism, declared (and the congress unanimously approved) that "the JNF shall be the eternal possession of the Jewish people" and that the Jewish people will always be the JNF's owners. In that way, the land would not be used for goals other than what the founders had in mind.

This week, 108 years later, Israel's prime minister visited the JNF's general assembly in Jerusalem and demanded that the delegates approve management's decision to transfer the land to the Israel Lands Administration, for billions of shekels, of course. That land had been purchased with our pennies. Since the government decided about a month ago to privatize the ILA, JNF land will no longer be "the eternal possession of the Jewish people." And since most JNF lands are in the center of the country, real estate sharks will now be able to speculate with them and apartment prices will reach heights accessible only to those in the top rungs of society.
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Nobody familiar with the JNF's situation wonders how its managers dare to speculate with the deposit entrusted to them by the Zionist movement and state institutions. Senior JNF officials say the organization is rife with rot and hedonism and needs billions to finance the good life of its employees, mainly its directors. (Salaries at the JNF are among the highest in the civil service.)

If it is no longer redeeming land, and if it is privatizing the land already in its possession, the JNF no longer has a raison d'etre, except to maintain a parasitic mechanism funded by privatization money. JNF land has been administered by the ILA since 1961, mainly to save money. In a festive agreement that the government signed with the JNF, it says the ILA will preserve "the basic principle of the JNF that the land will remain under the ownership of the people ... and the JNF will continue to operate as an institution of the Zionist Federation in Israel and the Diaspora ... to redeem land." We can see the point to which the JNF's management has deteriorated.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is well-versed in Herzl's writings. Zionism according to Herzl, along with the added value of pre-state right-wing leader Ze'ev Jabotinsky, is ostensibly his guiding light. No senior members of his party, how surprising, dare to stand in his way, although privately ministers and MKs are gritting their teeth.

If the ILA needs a revolution - and it certainly does - there is no need to throw out the baby with the bathwater. There is certainly no need to throw out the JNF's water, too.

Even if the JNF delegates in Israel and the Diaspora surrender to Netanyahu's tremendous pressure, he must overcome another high hurdle: abolishing the Basic Law on Israel Lands. "Israel lands belong to the State, the Development Authority or the Jewish National Fund," it says. "Ownership shall not be transferred either by sale or in any other manner."

In other words, even ILA land ("and the land shall not be sold in perpetuity"), by law cannot be privatized.

Israel's lands are a limited national asset; speculating with them is forbidden and dangerous - certainly when foreigners are eager to get their hands on the land to transfer it to groups that deny Israel's identity as a Jewish state. A majority in the government and Knesset - this has been confirmed - opposes these steps. This majority is now obligated to stand in the breach and vote against the abolition of the main points of the Basic Law on Israel Lands.
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